Editorials

Berkeley’s a mecca for excellent writers. A recent public library benefit dinner featured 29 famous local authors. We also have fine writers who aren’t yet famous, but should be. We hope to showcase local talent as much as possible. We want to build an inventory of excellent feature material by local writers which can be used when we have enough advertising to pay for extra space.

What are we looking for? Previews (of arts events, university lectures, even city meetings on hot topics) are particularly useful for readers who have limited time or money to spend. Background stories about current news, human interest articles that are not particularly timely, stories about high school sports -- tell us what you'd like to read or write.

Our principal criterion for acceptance, given our small staff, is that a writer be able to deliver usable copy which requires little or no editing. If you’re an expert on some interesting topic, but not a confident writer, we might be able to find you a co-author.

We welcome articles from student journalists, and we expect them to meet the same high standards as other contributors. We’ve met with Dean Orville Schell at the U.C. Journalism School to discuss ways the Berkeley Planet can cooperate with their program. We’re also looking for fledgling journalists at area high schools.